Venus

57- Christmas At Grimmauld Place

Venus joined the group outside the ward, to see Fred and George angrily untangling a mass of extendable ears.

They disentangled six extendable ears from each other and handed them out, Venus took hers happily, but Harry was more reluctant.

"Go on Harry take it!" Fred encouraged him, "you saved Dad's life, if anyone has got the right to eavesdrop it's you." Harry took the ear and they all began to listen intently.

"-they searched the whole area, but couldn't find the snake anywhere, it seems to have vanished after it attacked you... but You Know Who can't have expected the snake to get in, can he?" Tonks was saying

"I reckon he sent it as a lookout," growled Moody, "he's not had any luck so far has he? He's trying to get a clearer picture of what he's facing. If Arthur hadn't been there it would have had a lot more time to look around. So, Potter says he saw it all happen?"

"Yes," Molly replied, sounding uneasy, "you know Dumbledore seems to have been almost waiting for Harry to see something like this."

"Yeah, well," said Moody, "there's something funny about the Potter kid, we all know that."

"Dumbledore seemed worried about Harry when I spoke to him." Whispered Molly.

"Course he's worried," replied Moody, "The boy's seeing inside You Know Who's snake. Obviously, Potter didn't realise what this means, but if You Know Who is possessing him..."

But Venus didn't hear anymore. All of them were staring at Harry.

********

Sirius was in high spirits, and after a pep talk from Ginny about how he wasn't possessed by You Know Who (after comparing his symptoms to the ones she had during her possession), Harry was in the same spirits.

A massive Christmas tree (decorated with real fairies) blocked the Black family tree from view, and there was tinsel everywhere.

On Christmas day Venus awoke to a pile of presents.

A rather lumpy parcel revealed a purple knitted jumper with a golden 'V' on the front. Venus pulled it on over her pyjamas.

Ginny had bought her a large box of all of her favourite wizarding sweets and chocolates.

There was even a present from Mali (who Ginny and Venus had written to explaining what had happened), which contained a muggle coffee maker.

"I love it!" Venus declared after her first cup from the machine, "do you reckon we can modify it to work at Hogwarts?"

The very last present that Venus opened contained a blanket. It was powder pink and long enough for Venus to fully cocoon herself inside it. In the bottom corner the letters 'VB' were neatly sewn into it in navy blue thread.

A note had fallen out of the present when she opened it and Venus picked it up to read.

Molly gave this back to me in the summer, but I thought you might want it. Your mother made it for you.

-Sirius

Venus stared at the note and then pulled the blanket around herself, running the soft fabric through her hands.

For the first time she properly thought about her birth mother. Yes Molly Weasley was and always would be her mother, but she couldn't help but wonder what kind of person Marlene McKinnon was, what kind of mother she could have been, if she had been given the chance.

I just published the introduction to Marlene! Go and give it a vote!
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~Em xx